Planned meals from the freeze/pantry this weekend.
Saturday we had ribs ($.99 LB sale picked up awhile ago) Homemade fries (10LB bag potatoes for $$1.11- sale and overage from coupon) Ceaser salad (6 pk romaine hearts $4 Received 600 pc pts, have parm cheese, pulled free bacon from freezer, my man made homemade croutons)
Sunday- We made 2 huge trays of lasagna on Saturday night. 1 For Sunday night dinner and 1 for the freezer. We had everything on hand!
Plan on expanding your juice preferences-Florida orange crops are expected to be smaller and the futures' pricing has gone up.
https://www.thestar.com/business/201...-50-years.html
-I used shoppers redemption yesterday to save on the cost of health and beauty items and groceries -I paid 47.01 for 226.01 worth of groceries ,health and beauty items ,vitamins ,socks for me as mine have all holes -lol-I even shared and got diapers for my grandson
I shopped the sales/flyers. The last 6 months have been my best grocery shopping ever.
I've been eating out of the pantry and freezer,for the last 7 weeks only buying fruit and some fresh vegetables
When I cook there is always extras which is great for leftover night (once a week) and also the extras from suppers make great lunches for dh & I during the week.
I started a new rule which is when it's a snow day the kids each bake something, my boys are 13 & 16 so it's a great skill and it's a lot cheaper than buying the baked goods at the grocery store. Having said that I do buy 1/2 priced pies at the grocery store because you just can't make then for $3/$4 each with the cost of fruits etc.
We also have pasta atleast once if not twice a week. Sometimes as a main and sometimes as a side dish, it's filing and cheap. I made my own concentrated pasta sauce with tomatoes and peppers from the garden. I froze the sauce in 1 litre mason jars, once they are thawed I need to add some cream and voila cheap meal and/or lunches.
I only buy meat when it's once sale and I generally stock up for 2 months at a time. When the whole chicken or roast pork is on sale I buy enough for 2 months worth (1 meal a week). It saves a lot of money. I also buy 1/2 pork loin and cut them into pork chops or cubes for kabobs.
Love reading the ways people stretch their grocery bills/costs
Eating more beans! Last week no Frills had Unico canned beans of all types on for 75 cents per can so have been making some soups and chili.
I am fine with buying No Name eggs and butter to save on their costs as long as they are Canadian. Many prepared food items are from the US-some of them I will likely have to pay retail price or wait for specials. Since I want to keep using a tea on my pasta, I will try to buy them on sale (it'll save $1).
There are some Canadian products that I will buy on regular and on sale prices.
Need to make chili and play with seasonings. One recipe-the seasoning mix was too strong. I find canned chilis are too spicy/salty and feel the need to drink sweet things afterwards for the evening.
Also need to focus more on proteins and less on sweets. I usually don't feel satisfied after most meals.
Having Granny Smith or any eating apple (reduced price produce) in the fruit crisper is a key thing for night snacking. I do feel satisfied after having a large apple.
Need to give up those Special K nut bars-could eat 5 bars in one sitting and still crave them. All made in USA-same with All Bran bars (love two versions). Should get some of the sale hemp bites (made in Canada) to package in snack bags or containers and see how eating the bites works over having hemp seeds in fridge (I'm remembering about 3x per week to add the seeds to oatmeal or cereal but not daily).
Big issue is that it is hard to bake two or three things in one go unless I have everything on hand when I want and the others are not in the house (because they are in my way). That is why I'm keen on one pan dinners or quick cooking pasta variations as mainstays.
I do try to have a weekly updated list of what's out of stock and jot down sale prices from flyers so if I remember when I go past a store, I'll buy what is on sale there-that list usually is with me all the times that I leave the house. Menu plans-hardly make them.
-always try to buy on sale and price match also and try to up my coupons game this year - today saved 9.48 from price matching at freshco and 2.75 in coupons
Since noticing that my Shoppers usually has Wonder bread loaves with $1 off coupons on most weekends, I will buy one or two loaves there instead of always looking for cracked wheat on sale at Fortinos. I do not always eat bread but cold temperatures will prompt me to crave toast sometimes.
I will try to look for mixed salad deals at Longos when the big $7.99 box is marked down by $3. I managed to eat salad daily or 2x per day for a week when I purchased a box of salad earlier this month. Once per month is sufficient.
I've been using the SDM GCs i got during the GC promo to buy groceries at SDM if they are at decent prices. Since the GCs are already paid for, it's nothing extra out of my pocket. And I almost always shop during promos or using my coupon offers :)
good planQuote:
Originally Posted by Silk
Well according to what I heard on CTV news tonight groceries have gone down 2.1% compared to last January-of course gas for the car has gone up so....
This is a good week for fresh stuff for us. Food Basics has strawberries on for $1.67, kiwi $1.67 (about 8 in container) Gala Apples .88LB. My kids love all . Will be restocking the fridge on Wednesday for sure (last day of the sale)
Except for one or two days when I saw the price dip below $1, I've been seeing $1/l in late afternoons more often at the gas stations.Quote:
Originally Posted by lizzie bargain
Many groceries come from somewhere so transportation and currency exchange will be factored into pricing.
After supper last night, I started jotting down some note abouts which reduced produce items work for me and which have usually ended up in the green cart, things I'm not going to buy and to check protein amounts on nutrition labels (and try not to laugh at serving sizes because I rarely follow them). Want to play more with vegetables. Noticed a stuffed tomato recipe using Italian herbed panko crumbs and Parmesan cheese (the prepared tubs at deli are pricey and I know I'd have to use the cheese up within a couple of weeks to avoid waste). I have the regular panko crumbs on hand but not the cheese nor tomatoes-willing to try recipe once to see if I like tomatoes this way or not.
As I have several recipe pages to review as to pitch or not, I'm conscious that some cooking/baking techniques good for cold winter days won't be helpful when temperatures are warmer or muggy (as there is no vent hood over the stovetop), so I need recipes or alternative ways of preparation to have two ways to make a meal plus baking done ahead of need or hunger pangs.
I'm also going to weigh bagged produce just to see how much the scale says the produce ways and compare amount to package number.
Was in a ticked off cleaning mood this morning after breakfast so pulled out the lower food storage drawer contents, wiped drawer clean and stacked like items together because there are too many double packages of rice (at least three kinds), some legumes and such-dropped a list of items in the drawer. Repeated with bottom shelf of pantry and left another list (mentioned the 3 boxes of Corn Flakes).
Fridge-did a couple of shelf cleanups, noticed one old leftover is no longer lurking in the fridge and tossed someone's half-gone green lettuce. Third list on door indicating open jars of pickles, the 2 bottles of juice and one extraneous jarred item that seems to have been inside for months.